Public Authorities - Demand-Responsive Transport News

Which key measures for Demand-Responsive Transport in the new French Mobility Act?

on 6 January 2020 Companies Environment Innovation Legislation and regulations Public Authorities Transit Operators by Padam Mobility

Mobility Act key mesures Demand-Responsive Transport

What are the main key measures for Demand-Responsive Transport in the new French Mobility Act (LOM)? The text was published in the Official Journal of December 24, 2019. It brings many advances on shared mobility solutions including Demand-Responsive Transport. In particular, it marks the transition from a transport policy oriented towards major projects to an “everyday mobility” policy . 8 key points are to bear in mind:

1. Public Transport Authorities (PTA) mobility can more easily offer Demand-Responsive Transport services.

It is now possible for a PTA to intervene in the following 6 main areas, to develop an adapted offer to the territories: conventional regular transport, Demand-Responsive Transport, school transport, active and shared mobility, as well as solidarity mobility.

2. The mobility plans replace the current urban travel plans (PDU) and take into account Demand-Responsive Transport.

Active and shared mobility, solidarity mobility and the logistic challenges are better apprehended in these new plans. They are part of the objectives to fight urban sprawl, air pollution and for the preservation of biodiversity.

3. The transportation subsidy becomes the mobility subsidy and includes Demand-Responsive Transport.

This subsidy is subject to the setting up of conventional regular public transport services. In addition, it is possible to adjust its rate within the same work union according to the density of the territories.

4. Demand-Responsive Transport for People with Reduced Mobility (paratransit) is facilitated.

The mobility of people with reduced mobility will be facilitated, through concrete measures which include paratransit.

5. The development of Demand-Responsive Transport is facilitated.

The challenge is to make innovation a lever to meet the many unmet mobility needs.

6. The legal framework for carrying out experiments (POCs) on Demand-Responsive Transport in rural areas is adapted.

The act empowers the Government to legislate by ordinance to introduce legislative-level exemptions. This provision is part of the France Expérimentation approach.

7. Employers can implement Demand-Responsive Transport to facilitate their employees’ commuting as part of the compulsory negotiations to be carried out within companies with more than 50 employees.

These agreements must specify the manner in which employers undertake to facilitate the home-to-work trips of their employees. It could take the form of a mobility voucher.

8. A sustainable mobility package is created: up to € 400 / year to go to work by Demand-Responsive Transport.

Tous les employeurs privés et publics pourront contribuer aux frais de déplacement domicile-travail en solutions de mobilité partagée de leurs salariés. Ce forfait pourra s’élever jusqu’à 400 €/an en franchise d’impôt et de cotisations sociales. Aussi, il remplacera l’indemnité kilométrique vélo mise en place jusqu’à ce jour, mais dont la mise en œuvre est restée limitée car trop complexe. Ce forfait sera cumulable avec la participation de l’employeur à l’abonnement de transport en commun, dans une limite de 400€/an (la prise en charge de l’abonnement de transport en commun reste déplafonnée).

All private and public employers will be able to contribute to home-to-work trips’ costs through shared mobility solutions for their employees. This package can be up to € 400 / year free of tax and healthcare contributions. Also, it will replace the bicycle mileage allowance set up to date, but whose implementation has been limited because of it’s complexity. This package can be combined with the employer’s participation to the public transport subscription, up to a limit of € 400 / year (support for the public transport subscription remains uncapped).

Learn more about the LOM, the French Mobility Act (in Frenc)

Learn more about Home-to-Work trips

Demand-Responsive Transport: Why aren’t they all equal? Reservation time limit and itinerary calculation

on 27 December 2019 Innovation Public Authorities Transit Operators by Padam Mobility

Reservation time limit and itinerary calculation methods are important parameters for choosing a Demand-Responsive Transport (DRT) solution.

Reservation the day before or last minute

There are three main categories:

DRT services requiring a reservation the day before. This time slot is often sufficient for people who use the service for commuting. However, it does not fit to other needs (shopping, leisure, etc.).
DRT services with a 2 hours reservation time limit. Allowed by technical improvements but also and above all by compromises on other points. This delay is ultimately quite little different from the previous case in its advantages and drawbacks.
DRT with real time reservation. Like Uber and Lyft, users can book their trip as late as they want. The DRT vehicle will pick them up as soon as possible. Real time reservations is a real plus. In Orléans, when real-time reservations were put in place, more than 30% of reservations were made last minute, resulting in a significant increase in traffic. In addition, some use cases are only possible if real time reservation is possible. For example, an airport DRT service. Indeed, with the plane delays and baggage claim time, users are never sure when they can be picked up.

Different methods of itinerary calculation

Some Demand-Responsive Transport operate following the “virtual line” service design. They operate like a conventional bus line, except that they only stop at requested stops. Simple to set up, the interest is also very limited. In fact, there is little optimization in terms of time or mileage since the itinerary remains unchanged. Also, they will not be able to cover a larger area than a conventional fixed line.

On the other hand, there are DRT solutions which make it possible to vary the itineraries according to user requests. They follow a “zonal” service design. In this case, operating optimizations are important.

Zonal Demand-Responsive Transport

Some “zonal” DRTs require human intervention. The transit operator receives indications allowing him to make an informed choice when he assigns a person to a bus. The trajectory is therefore made up by the human using the machine or by the machine using the human.
Other “zonal” DRT solutions build the itineraries using an algorithm once all the reservations have been filled in. This therefore requires stopping reservations before the start of the service (one night or half a day).
Finally, some solutions, based on artificial intelligence, are capable of creating itineraries as reservations are made. This allows in particular the real-time reservation like Padam Mobility solutions.

Under the name “Demand-Responsive Transport” there is therefore, on the one hand, a service which follows a predetermined line and, on the other hand, a service which is capable of optimizing itineraries in real time according to user requests. Not all solutions fit to all uses cases, and choosing the right tool is a crucial step for the success of a Demand-Responsive Transport service.

Read more about other parameters to keep in mind when choosing a Demand-Responsive Transport solution

Why are the territories rushing to replace their demand-responsive transit systems?

on 27 December 2019 Innovation Public Authorities by Padam Mobility

Because dynamic demand-responsive transit is to DRT what the smartphone is to the landline phone: a solution that makes its ancestor outdated, thanks the combination of technology and intelligence, in line with the changing uses.

A cheaper and more accessible shared mobility solution

Historically linked to senior public and mobility impaired people, demand-responsive transit is now opened to all audiences. Leisure, studies, shopping, employment… Suitable to all territories and scales, dynamic demand-responsive transit offers new opportunities for communities:

Flexible and intelligent, dynamic DRT ensures a significant decrease in operating costs and carbon footprint.
More accessible, it guarantees social inclusiveness by addressing the issues of precariousness-mobility, mainly in peri-urban and rural areas, while being compatible with the transport of mobility impaired people.
In sync with mobility innovations, it saves time for people.

Despite its many advantages, DRT suffers from the image of the aged demand-responsive transit solutions deployed decades ago: heavy in terms of investment, long to deploy and complex to operate.

Technological advances, particularly the optimization of journeys in real time thanks to artificial intelligence, make it an extremely easy mobility solution to implement.

Demand-responsive transit: a simple and fast solution to deploy

Nowadays, thanks to technological innovations, new turnkey solutions are being developed to answer more effectively the needs of territories and users.

Unlike other systems, SaaS demand-responsive transit solutions simplify service implementation and ease day-to-day network management:

No installation is required on the computers. The acquisition cost is significantly reduced, as well as the cost of maintenance and updates.
These solutions offer great freedom of use, since they can be accessed from any connected device.
The tools are hosted on secured servers: maintenance and service guarantee are greatly improved
The needs of the territory covered define the functionalities to which users have access.

In addition, SaaS demand-responsive transit solutions do not involve any disruption for end users. Indeed, these tools can coexist with older systems, such as reservation centrals that access reservation interfaces. Users may also prefer a mobile application to book their trips. As for drivers, they can follow in real time the evolution of their journey via the application.

To determine the outlines of the best offer to deploy, some solutions provide simulation tools to study a given territory beforehand: number of vehicles, number of stops, service models, etc…

Depending on the customization required, the deployment of a SaaS demand-responsive transit tool last from 1 to 3 months. The data collected during operation help to improve the service permanently and to study new approaches to evolve the demand-responsive transit network.

Ready to give up your wire? Find out about Padam Mobility’s on-demand transport solutions here.

From Smart Mobility to Fair Mobility with Demand Responsive Transport

on 27 December 2019 Innovation Public Authorities by Padam Mobility

Urban development, geo-tracking and mobile applications primacy, ridesharing, big data, 5G, connected and smart cities… these are all the terms related to the urban services in the future. Tomorrow’s cities will be more connected, smarter and more responsive. A societal transformation that is very interesting to follow, because while the most educated, connected, buying-powered population who master the digital ecosystems will be the one who will benefit the most, we must also ensure that we do not forget all other citizens, including people with reduced mobility, senior citizens and residents without transport service coverage. To be relevant, “smart” mobility must therefore be inclusive. Between smart mobility and fair mobility, the nuance is important and can contribute to make our society more just and fair. Let’s explain why.

Smart Mobility: intelligent and efficient, but far from perfect

Smart mobility means the use of new technologies (real-time data collection, processing and analysis) for transportation. It is, for example, a way of finding the right route at the right time, anticipating traffic difficulties, and connecting physical things (bridges, roads, traffic lights, street lighting, parking, etc.) to a digital interface in order to create new applications and use cases.

It’s quite hard to dissociate smart mobility from smart city. Although its contours are changing, the smart city is above all an ambition driven by public and private players who are committed to a more inclusive, connected and responsive urban planning project that can have a competitive advantage in terms of economic development in an increasingly globalized world.

In his report to the Prime Minister in spring 2017, Luc Belot, then deputy in Maine-et-Loire, set out 3 main principles of the smart city:

Organise real governance: a structure that brings together elected representatives, the administration, postsecondary education and economic players for cross-cutting policies.
Ensure sovereignty and avoid privatization: crucial issues for territories to keep control of data, tools, applications and software, with an emphasis on standardization and reversibility.
Ensure an inclusive city: giving a place to each citizen, without social or digital divides, and moving from a user-centric to a citizen-centric approach.

In reality, however, smart cities are mainly linked to megacities with a young, active, urban and connected population. Unintentionally, this term excludes certain parts of the population for economic, social, urban planning and physical reasons. So smart mobility is supposed to be inclusive on paper, but in reality this is not always true. Hence the importance of being vigilant to avoid gaps between intentions and concrete actions.

There are, fortunately, some counterexamples, such as the city of Medellín in Colombia, described as the most innovative city in the world by the Wall Street Journal in 2012, which proves that you can be a smart city without being a tech city.

Why make mobility more inclusive?

Why move from a premium and exclusive model to an accessible and inclusive one? There is clearly an emergency as shown by the alarming datas from the Ministry of Transport:

12% of sensitive urban areas are not served by any transport network.
One in two people in professional integration has already refused a job or training because of mobility problems.
One French person in three has mobility problems and is threatened with social exclusion.

Intelligent and purely technological mobility only makes sense if it can include the entire population in a logic that is more human than economic. This is the reason why smart mobility has become fair mobility. To achieve this, technological intelligence must be a tool and not an end. What matter is the goal. If we simplify the lives of only 10% of the inhabitants of a city with a smart city, we de facto exclude the remaining 90%.

Demand-responsive transport (DRT): a solution to move from Smart Mobility to Fair Mobility

Demand-reponsive transport (or DRT) has the ability to transform intelligent transportation into sustainable, social and human mobility. Outside dense and urban areas, it can be difficult to travel by public transport. Not enough users, complex traffic, few commercial or tourist locations… the current model is not designed to be fair. And if things are already complicated during the day, imagine the challenges of travelling at night, especially for workers with staggered hours.

Demand-responsive transport is a public transport system like any other, with a shuttles or buses, but with routes and stops set according to users’ reservations. Here, no vehicle runs empty and routes are optimized.

Public transport does much more than transporting passengers. They are the links that connect and bring territories together. They make life easier for people, create economic value and develop responsibly thanks to the digital revolution that is transforming our society. When technology is at the service of all, mobility can become smart and fair.

Padam Mobility keeps deploying its DRT in the Paris region

on 25 December 2019 Interview Padam Mobility News Public Authorities Transit Operators by Padam Mobility

With its Demand-Responsive Transport (DRT) solutions, Padam Mobility keeps expanding in Île-de-France and is helping the Paris region to reduce the environmental footprint.

Also known as the “ecological footprint”, the environmental footprint is an indicator that measures the impact of human activities on the environment. Among other greenhouse gas emitting sectors, the transportation one has real ecological repercussions on the atmosphere. In addition to having a harmful impact on nature, pollution from car traffic is also harmful to health. Private cars remains the preferred means of transportation for French people for their short trips, mostly for home-to-work trips. According to a report written in 2018 by the Réseau Action Climat entitled “Transports et Pollutions”, the share of private vehicle use in France is 65% for daily trips (and long journeys), to the detriment of other types of transport mode that are more ecological.

In densely populated areas, road traffic generates very high carbon monoxide emissions. To limit these releases that poison air quality, we must rethink the ways of moving. Committed since its creation to the development of greener and more responsible mobility, Padam Mobility has incorporated the ecological issue into its DNA from its beginnings.

With its dynamic Demand-Responsive Transport (DRT) solutions based on Artificial Intelligence, Padam Mobility is using its expertise to revolutionize everyday mobility. Since the recent adoption of the French Mobility Law (called LOM) on November 19, 2019, Padam Mobility affirms its commitment to act alongside companies and communities to improve the mobility of employees and users between their home and their place of work.

By precisely adapting its offer to the nature and needs of its customers (transit operators and transport authorities, local authorities, companies, individuals, etc.), Padam Mobility questions historical transport patterns, and, among other things, the use of the private car as a mean of transportation.

Padam Mobility’s green figures

In response to the environmental challenge and the ecological transition, DRT is a response that is as relevant as effective in combating global warming. By designing smart, optimized and inexpensive mobility services, Padam Mobility contributes to:

Reducing the use of the private car thanks to alternative mobility solutions when conventional public transportation shows its limits. In this way, Padam Mobility has enabled its users to save around 82,000 km of car trips, equivalent to 16 tonnes of CO2 not emitted.
Optimizing existing transportation services with smart and dynamic solutions to avoid empty trips and calculate the best routes. In concrete terms, the average pooling rate of Padam Mobility DRT services is 80%. It can reach 92% on the best optimized services.
The development of solutions that encourage Padam Mobility’s users to adopt eco-gestures to think about their mobility and choose their itinerary according to their environmental impact. According to a study by Padam Mobility, indicating the most fuel-efficient itinerary to DRT users would, on average, save 500 kilos of CO2 per vehicle per year.

6 new territories in the Paris region covered by Padam Mobility’s DRT solutions

Already present in the Paris region (at Gally-Mauldre, Meaux, Bois-le-Roi, Centre-Essone, Vexin, Nangis, Perthes en Gatinais, Melun and La Ferté), Padam Mobility solutions will soon be deployed in 6 new territories covered by Île-de-France Mobilités (IDFM, the Paris region’s Public Transport Authority). For IDFM, Padam Mobility’s expertise meets the mobility challenges of the Île-de-France region by configuring DRT services adapted to local issues.

Effective from January 6, 2020, this new deployment will concern the following 6 IDFM territories: Nemours, Coulommiers, Gretz-Ozoir-Tournan, Saint Mard, Houdan-Montfort, Rambouillet Ouest.

Find out more about Padam Mobility solutions

Learn more about the users of TAD IDFM (Paris region’s DRT solution)

Meet the users of the Demand Responsive Transport: Saint-Nom la-Bretèche

on 23 December 2019 Interview Public Authorities Transit Operators by Padam Mobility

We keep focusing on Saint-Nom-la-Bretèche and its Demand-Responsive Transport network “TAD Ile-de-France Mobilités” (ex Flexigo Gally-Mauldre).

Our first ride on dynamic Demand-Responsive Transport from Saint-Nom-la-Bretèche train station takes us to the town hall square on which we meet Samir. Samir is one of the DRT drivers. His service is over and he was kind enough to give us a few minutes.

The service has positive reputation among the local residents as Saint-Nom-la Bretèche with no transportation was a very serious issue. The service also seduces non-residents for very different uses. It allows to mix all types of users and nationality, people are seeing each other more frequently than before.

For Quentin, 27, a young Parisian, passing through St-Nom-la-Bretèche and met a little later, the service is a real vector of social link.

We feel that there is a desire to connect people, to make them move together. The minibus is modern, the driver knows your name and you have to announce yourself when you get on. It gives the impression the driver knows personally the people he picks up.

Quentin uses the service for the first time:

It’s the friends I’m meeting at St-Nom-la-Bretèche who told me about it. They would have picked me up at the train station if the service didn’t exist. At least I don’t disturb and I preserve my autonomy. It is mind-blowing that the service is included in my Navigo pass. Even if I live in Paris, I would have liked to hear more about the service. There are zero ads, it might have motivated me to spend a little time in the outer suburbs, especially on weekends when the weather is good.

On the way back, we approach Christian, 52, working in St-Nom-la-Bretèche for several years and living in Mantes-la-Jolie. He testifies:

Without this service, I would have had to come much earlier to work. I spend almost the same travel time by car but at least I avoid the traffic jams and I save my gas. I can also avoid pollution because my car remains at home.

When we ask him what he thinks about the booking app, he confesses:

I’m not very comfortable with smartphones so I book my rides in advance by phone, usually for the whole week. It’s good they kept a phone number to call.

About TAD IDFM Gally-Mauldre

11 towns served
Launched on January 2nd, 2018
Co-financed by Ile-de-France Mobilités and the Gally-Mauldre inter municipality
More than 250 trips / weekday
Operated by Transdev
6000 trips / month
+ 95% of bookings made via the mobile application
95% of punctuality
The DRT service was set up to facilitate intermodality by allowing the inhabitants of the territory to access the train stations of Maule, Plaisir and Saint-Nom-la-Bretèche at peak hours without using their personal vehicle. The service also facilitates senior and non-motorized youth travels in the area by offering off-peak hours services during weekdays and Saturdays to cities of the inter municipality and train stations.

Read more (in French)

Meet other users of Dynamic Demand-Responsive Transport

To respect their anonymity, the first names of the interviewees have been modified.

Meet the users of the Demand Responsive Transport: Saint-Nom-La-Bretèche

on 23 December 2019 Interview Public Authorities Transit Operators by Padam Mobility

On the occasion of the 18th edition of the European Mobility Week, focus on the west of Paris in Saint-Nom la-Bretèche and its Demand-Responsive Transport network “TAD Ile-de-France Mobilités” (ex Flexigo Gally-Mauldre).

Once arrived at the Foret de Marly train station, we go to the DRT stop and wait for the minibus that we booked a few hours before via the “TAD IDFM” app. Once aboard, we meet Huynh, 39, who has just moved to St-Nom-la-Bretèche. She heard about the service from her husband who got the information on internet:

Although I don’t use it very regularly, I am truly satisfied. It’s very practical and easy to book.

Huynh uses the service to go home located 30 minutes on foot from the train station.

Before, I moved to the station by car, now I can book a minibus in advance, which are available anytime. I save fuel and I don’t need to park or pay for it. I know I can rely on this service for my daughter’s travels to and from the train station which is located in the middle of the forest. It reassures me to know that a minibus is waiting for her when she comes back from Paris at night.

Akhil, 17, high school student, also living in St-Nom-la-Bretèche, is silently listening to us from an adjacent place. He intervenes:

There is no comparison possible. Before, I hitchhiked sometimes to go to school in the morning or to go back home in the evening. It wasn’t easy and I walked sometimes more than 45 minutes when no one wanted to pick me up. It was really tough and unsafe. This service reassures my parents, especially when it’s dark.

For Akhil who has no problem in handling the application, the time slots available are many but sometimes don’t match the train schedules :

We end up having sometimes 15-20 minutes to wait otherwise we miss the train.

The student adds that efforts in terms of communication and acculturation still have to be done:

Sometimes, people can’t get on the bus because they don’t know that they have to book a ride. It’s frustrating for them and the driver and it could be avoided if everyone knew the rules of the game from the beginning. At the train station, no one can really explain the service operation and the signs – when they exist – are not clear enough in my opinion.

We get off the bus at the “Europe 1” stop to meet Mélanie, 37, on the town hall square. Mélanie is a young mother who lives 5 minutes from there.

I use my car exclusively, I never needed to use the service but I find it convenient. I may use it if I have an issue with my car and need to go urgently to the train station or the surroundings.

At mentioning previously-met Akhil and Huynh’s testimonies, Melanie confesses:

My children will start to move alone soon and it is true that it’s a solution that would reassure me.

Read the next chapter

About TAD IDFM Gally-Mauldre

11 towns served
Launched on January 2nd, 2018
Co-financed by Ile-de-France Mobilités and the Gally-Mauldre municipality
More than 250 trips / weekday
Operated by Transdev
6000 trips / month
+ 95% of bookings made via the mobile app
95% of punctuality
The DRT service was set up to facilitate intermodality by allowing the inhabitants of the territory to access the train stations of Maule, Plaisir and Saint-Nom-la-Bretèche at peak hours without using their personal vehicle. The service also facilitates senior and non-motorized youth travels in the area by offering off-peak hours services during weekdays and Saturdays to cities of the inter municipality and train stations.

Read more (in French)

Meet other users of Dynamic Demand-Responsive Transport

To respect their anonymity, the first names of the interviewees have been modified.

Meet the users of the Demand-Responsive Transport: La Ferté sous-Jouarre

on 23 December 2019 Interview Public Authorities Transit Operators by Padam Mobility

On the occasion of the 18th edition of the European Mobility Week, we’re heading east: La Ferté sous-Jouarre, to meet the users of the recently inaugurated TAD Ile-de-France Mobilités Demand-Responsive Transport network. Located less than an hour by train from Paris, the La Ferté-sous-Jouarre train station is particularly busy during peak hour. The bus station nearby is a hub for school buses to neighboring municipalities during weekdays.

Mylène, 48, is a driver of one of the Transdev Darche-Gros buses dedicated to the DRT service. She is performing her first service of the day and is waiting for the users.

I had some difficulties with the driver’s tablet at the beginning, but after a few minutes of use, everything becomes very easy. The application we use informs us of the number of passengers that have to pick up, their name and their destination. Each passenger must give his name to get a seat on board. I find it allows to create a real contact with the passengers. Before they were hardly speaking to us. Now we even tell each other a little bit about our lives. A teenager I drive every day explained to me that thanks to the service, the custody was now better shared between her parents.

Hugo, 15, who has already had his seat on the bus, is waiting with the driver for the the passengers. Hugo lives in Rebais, 20 minutes from La Ferté. His parents heard about the service on the radio and had him download the application. Since then, he uses it every day mornings and evenings.

In general I book in advance for the whole week, since I already know my class time schedules. Before there was no transport between La Ferté and Rebais so I had to make a detour via Meaux. I had to take the Transilien and I easily lost 30-40 minutes.

Mourad, 40, who is listening to us, testifies:

I work in Paris and I live in Rebais. I use the service since its creation. As for me, it means less stress and fatigue compared to the car I used to drive to go to the train station. I had to leave it on the parking lot. In terms of travel time, it’s exactly the same. The booking? I do it on the application, it’s done in not even two minutes, everything goes very fast, it’s great.

Another DRT vehicle arrives. We talk to Nicolas, his driver.

This is a service that was eagerly awaited by locals. Indeed, most of them live in small villages where you can only go by car. We may still be in Paris region and one hour from the city, it’s the countryside here. Once the rush hour is over, there is no one. The service has just been launched and there is still much to do in term of signage and communication but we see new passengers everyday. We started with 1-2 users. Now we are more around 10-12 users. People who were struggling to go home before. Most of them are kids. People say it is a service that threatens conventional bus lines but I would say the opposite. This is a good way to test the attendance of the service and then develop a fixed line if necessary. For now, we still use our big buses but we have new minibuses coming soon. They will be more suitable. Most of the time we stop at bus stops that already existed. It’s easier for the users.

About TAD IDFM La Ferté (first figures after 10 days of operation)

4 towns served, about 19,000 inhabitants concerned
Launched on September 2, 2019
Co-financed by Ile-de-France Mobilités and the Coulommiers Pays de Brie inter municipality
Operated by Transdev Darche-Gros
Up to 20 bookings / weekdays
95% of bookings made via the mobile app
95% of punctuality
The service was set up to open up the north-eastern sector of the department by improving intra-agglomeration mobility. The objective is to facilitate the connection between the communes of La-Ferté-sous-Jouarre, Rebais and La Ferté-Gaucher and to improve the service of the transport nodes (La Ferté-sous-Jouarre bus and railway stations).

Read more (in French)

Meet other users of Dynamic Demand-Responsive Transport

To respect their anonymity, the first names of the interviewees have been modified.

Meet the users of the Demand-Responsive Transport: Le Cotentin

on 3 December 2019 Interview Public Authorities Transit Operators by Padam Mobility

We are heading to Le Cotentin, Normandy and its urban area to meet the (young) users of the La Saire TAD Demand-Responsive Transport network, inaugurated last summer 2019.

First step at the “College” stop which is located opposite the Denis Diderot high school in Tourlaville, a town located in the urban area of Cherbourg. We meet Antoine, 12, who is patiently waiting to go to class. He confesses:

I don’t use the service because I already live next to the high school and I like to walk or use my scooter to get there. Nevertheless, several people of my class take the La Saire TAD Demand-Responsive Transport every time we finish classes. I see them get on board. They mainly use it to go home after school but not every day. Before using it, most of them came by car with their parents.

If I had to use it myself, it would be mostly to go to town. The big advantage I see is that the van can come at times the bus might not be there. It’s more convenient and faster.

Four of Antoine’s comrades arrive precisely at the moment we are talking. When they get off the La Saire TAD Demand-Responsive Transport, we question them successively. For Mathis, 12 years old, who lives in Le Becquet, he heard about the service at the beginning of the school year.

Of course I’m not the only one around to use it. I book the van directly from my smartphone every week, several days in advance. It’s been between 1 and 2 months that I use it mainly to go to high school, which avoids me to go by bike or by foot. It takes between 10 and 30 minutes to get there. It’s complicated when it’s cold and rainy. In addition, in winter it’s dark very early and the street is not enlightened where I live.

Mickael, same age, same grade, adds:

It’s a very convenient service because buses come here only every two hours. I use it with a friend who books for me. As we live in the same place, he books on my behalf and I take the van with him.

For Fanny, who uses the service every day to go to high school, it’s her elder sister who books for her via her smartphone.

I like the service because it goes fast.

Paulo, doesn’t have a smartphone (yet) but his mother books his trips every Wednesday and Thursday through the app.

What is great is that you can book at any time. Sometimes we have a teacher who is absent or we have free time slot in our timetable. When the service did not exist, I stayed at school or I took line 8 but it does not come all the time.

Many high school students use the service, we ask Véronique, a driver of the La Saire TAD Demand-Responsive Transport if she meets other types of public.

It’s true that I carry mostly middle school and high school students. Sometimes I carry 5-6 of them from the same class! There are some adults too, especially during the holidays. After that, since we are in the countryside, there are older people. For them, the service is not optimal because they have to get off at the stops where classic buses come to go to the city center. The minibus itself is not really suitable for the elderly, the door is difficult to close but it seems that it will evolve!

It is a service suitable for children and teens who don’t live in the city center. Here we also have sport complexes that offers a lot of activities in the afternoon. There are children we’re picking up out of class, we bring them home and then, an hour later, we bring them back to their sports activities. For the parents, it is very practical because they don’t have to go back and forth in the middle of the day anymore. We are 3 to run the service 3x24h per week, from Monday to Saturday, except on Sundays and public holidays so we relieve the parents a lot during the week.

About La Saire TAD DRT service

Launched in July 2019 in partnership with Zephirbus (Keolis group), La Saire TAD Demand-Responsive Transport service aims to ease the access to the heart of the city of Cherbourg from the peripheral municipalities, especially those located on the eastern part of the territory. Its +900 trips per month score an average of 4.9 / 5.

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Meet other users of Dynamic Demand-Responsive Transport

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Interview with Arnaud Catherine, Le Cotentin Urban Community

on 28 November 2019 Interview Public Authorities by Padam Mobility

Interview of Arnaud Catherine, councilor of the Urban Community of Le Cotentin about the implementation of the La Saire TAD Demand-Responsive Transport.

In which context was born the project of La Saire TAD?

Originally there was only Cherbourg-en-Cotentin which had a public urban transport network: 6 to 8 regular lines, coupled with some Demand-Responsive Transport (DRT) services for people with reduced mobility called Itineo Access. It was a Demand-Responsive Transport service in the very classic sense of the word. It did not use tools based on artificial intelligence. Reservations were made in advance by phone and drivers’ shifts was managed by a dedicated staff.

We structured ourselves to put in place a real travel plan for the whole Cotentin territory. We did a lot of analytical work on some projects such as the BRT, which alone might not be up to our new ambition. Finally, we experimented three new mobility solutions:

Long-term-lease power-assisted electric bicycle, which was a great success and showed a real desire to move differently.
Electric, thematic, touristic and free shuttle that we used to experience gratuity.
Smart and dynamic Demand-Responsive transport in rural areas with Padam Mobility.

How Demand-Responsive Transport adapt to your mobility challenges?

The low density of our territories prohibits us from offering traditional bus transportation. It would allow at best a dozen people to move during the day. Inspired by the example of the Orleans Metropolis, the Padam Mobility Demand-Responsive Transport solution seemed to us the most adapted to our territory: an urban area of 80,000 inhabitants surrounded by peri-urban or rural territories of about 100,000 inhabitants.

Padam Mobility has been a revelation. You have opened our minds to the fact that we cannot put conventional transit lines everywhere, especially when the territories are not dense and the rolling stock is not suitable.

What are the feedbacks?

Once the service launched at La Saire, the success was almost instantaneous. We faced a colossal expectation of the inhabitants to have a flexible transport service that is adapted to their uses. We soon realized that we were not ambitious enough in the delimitation of the mobility pool benefiting from the service.

Why did you begin with La Saire?

This territory has 3 municipalities that touch Cherbourg-en-Cotentin, and therefore touch the conventional network on which we wanted to interface the Demand-Responsive Transport with. It was a way for us to analyze the relevance of our service design. We wanted to know if the users would come to connect to the conventional network.

What are the future developments?

We intend to make the service 100% accessible to People with Reduced Mobility (PRM) throughout the urban area. Regarding the motorization, an ongoing study will lead us to make choices. To give up gas, it will be necessary to arbitrate between electric and biogas motorization. Today we have experimented on a mobility pool that is far too small. Ultimately, all mobility pools must be covered and connected to the structuring network.

We expect to ramp up gradually. There is a huge expectation from our citizens.

Why did you choose to work with Padam Mobility?

We know that we have an essentially urban, diurnal and schoolchildren-centric public transportation network. Being able to move at night, to go to a show requires to propose a global offer.

Padam Mobility is really the brick that was missing in our global transport offer. We had in mind the structuring lines and services we had connected to them (electric bikes, school buses). For the rest we had nothing. DRT with Padam Mobility makes it possible to complement the existing offer and to propose an integrated and global offer, to eventually cover all the needs of the inhabitants. That’s the point.

Padam Mobility would come to finish to mesh completely our territory which is rather rural by offering a transportation service for all. Whether you live in Taillepied, 26 inhabitants, or in Cherbourg-in-Cotentin, 82,000 inhabitants, with Padam Mobility, everybody could benefit from a mobility offer. It’s revolutionary for a territory like ours.

Arnaud Catherine, delegate councilor for urban transportation of the Cotentin Urban Community and 4th deputy of Cherbourg-en-Cotentin in charge of energy and energy transition.

About La Saire TAD, the Cotentin’s Demand-Responsive Transport Service

Launched in July 2019 in partnership with Zephirbus (Keolis group), La Saire TAD DRT service aims to facilitate the access to the heart of the city of Cherbourg from the peripheral municipalities. Its +900 trips per month score an average of 4.9 / 5.

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